The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1887-07-09
THE SILVER LINING OF THE CLOUD.
From uarper's WeeklY.I

At ipiH ItI " tGhly.l
The incident of ''the rebel flags" has
| had one excellent result. Ii has shown
the extreme difficulty Of re-opening the
sectional Issue, and has revealed the
good sense ot the people and the press
IN the southern states. The tone of
everything that has been said there
upon The snhiect certainly compares
iaVorahiy with the h,stericai Oul bursts
"f many men and paper. in the north
ern states. The order itself was uu-
wise. hecau-c Il was not in harmony
with public sentiment in this part of
the Union; and il was all error, be-
cause the question of the disposition OF
the flags should be decided bv cou-
@resS. But the attempt TO show that
the order showed the secret sympathy
ui ti!e president with rebellion and a
disposition 10 pandar to disloyalty, or
that The incident had any significance
Whatever except that OF desire to con-
iirm existing good feeling. has totally
tE!ied. General Drum and Secretary
Endicutt and President Cleveland are
as earnest patriots and were quite AS
sincere Union men a. General Butler,
tor Instance, who sneers at the presi-
dent, but whose fidelity TO the Union
and good service in the field were both
uuqucstiunable. The incident has re-
veaied not only the good sense Of "the
New South" but the good sense of
what GOV. Ames, Of Massachusetts,
aptly calls ''the New North.'
The uproar was largely factitious and
political, and was intended to arouse
ihe Old sectional jealousy, singing one
section to angry retorts, and the other
TO renewed aninosity. But this game
has tailed utterly. The sterling patri-
otic feeling in the old Union states has
not responded to the antics of partisan
poiiticians, but while seeing Me mis-
lake Of the administration, il has sus-
pected neither treachery to the govern
nent nor any motive that is not Just
aud fair, while the remarks of Cover
hors Lee, of Virginia, and Gordon, of
Georgia, and OF the southern press gem
orally, have proved that public feeling
in the southern states is not to be goad-
ed into expressions OF hostility or in
sul' 10 the Union aud the flag. The
very extravaganza of much of the talk
IL the northern republican press showed
to what extremity it had been reduced
to find elective cries against the ad-
rinistra'ion, and the whole incident
betrays the wish 10 try another cam
paign upon the line OF sectional anti
pathy and the war tradition. Happily
the ''New North of Governor Ames,
the whole body OF new voters in this
part of the Union, would be generally
unaffected by such an appeal. What
the young men OF the northern states
see and hear as they look southward is
not vast slave holding interest cher
ishing hatred of the Union, and ripen-
ing southern sentiment for civil war, or
a southern army arrayed against the
government to dissolve the Union and
found slave empire, but body of
equal citizens in free Union, with
slavery abolished, war at an end, in
dustry and trade prosperouly revived,
loyalty, fidelity, and good feeling, with
but one difficult problem left from
slavery uusOlved.
This Is what they see, and the effort
10 stir i'll their breasts the passions that
swaycd their fathers twenty five and
thirty years ago is a despicable partisan
trek, winch is necessarily and FORUM
ately aboFtive. The real feeling of the
New North, composed both OF the
yohng nen 10 whom the war is ira
dition and OF Older men who were an
integral part of the triumphant upris-
,ns 'or I,i'on I'M ana liberty, was wen eX-
peu 'i,is uf senator cherhiah at Nash
NiiiG-noi at Springfield:
lt Is over, thank God, but the
o1u, o;dns a.. ufavers , a,nu lorti5ude OF Doth
sues are now the PRIDE ana heritage of
us an LINK not that come here to
reproach any man for the part he took
III III ttlat hSht, or TO revive IN the heart
" any one .he trlumphs oil victory or
'he pahss OF deieat. L do not come to
~, amahe apoiogies-hor 10 ask any OF you.
inc war was perhaps unavoidable,
no"hu 10 come some time, and the
sooner perhaps the better"
IL was confirmed by Senator Hoar at
me uhner III Boston to the Robert K.
'-ee U'iiP oi confederate Veterans:
we nave learned respect for each
on nave learned something OF
lhe Puritan. You have discovered that
W Hlch cOnfrOufpu vonrs and uonarne;